12-15-2014, 08:58 PM
For decades the oil price was relatively stable thanks to the dominance of Saudi Arabia heading the OPEC-cartel. In the meantime Saudi Arabia has become no 3, outpaced by Russia and the US. If the Saudis want to curtail the production to bring back stability, this must be a draconic cut. So, the present policy makes sense.
Looking at the LNG-market you see a completely different situation. Qatar has a dominant position in this market with a marketshare over 30%. Annual growth is healthy: 3.8%. There might be some oversupply when the big Australian projects coming to the market. This will only be a temporary situation. Qatar will be in a position to smooth things out like the Saudis used to do.